Climbing the Queen’s Staircase in Nassau

April 20, 2011

During our cruise we’d originally set out with a bit of a food theme, treating ourselves to a sitting at the chef’s table and a cooking lesson when we were in port at Cancun. Instead hurricane Paula rolled through, and we ended up getting diverted to Nassau. Ironically we’d opted for the original set of destinations, not seeing Nassau having much more to offer than the spectacle that’s Atlantis.

Unfortunately shore excursions are typically pricey, and Atlantis maybe even more so. If you were staying for an extended stay, then maybe it’d be worth dropping the money for a day pass and distracting yourself with the myriad attractions – the waterslide through the middle of a shark tank is an especially nice touch – but given the time at port is almost always short, we instead opted to wander around and take a look at Nassau.

Having read about the Queen’s Staircase and armed with a general sense of where it was, we wandered out into the city. Nassau is a vibrant, and friendly city, but with a recent fire in the downtown area, it was clear some people were struggling. One such individual guided us up to the staircase while giving us a brief overview of its history – later verified by the awesome tour guide at the nearby fort.

Between the years of 1793 & 1794 slaves on the island carved 65 steps out of the limestone to an impressive 102 feet height, to honour Queen Victoria’s 65 year long reign. Interestingly though, the Queen’s reign at the time of unveiling was only 63 years long – they apparently rounded up as that seemed like a nicer number to celebrate – and since the repair is now only 64 steps high.

While her reign did start in June 1837, Queen Victoria was officially coronated the following year in June 1838. It was my decision to count her reign from that point until her death in 1901. So the sixty-three year reign quoted in the article is correct.

I think Kevin’s point is more that the stairs were not CARVED “to honour Queen Victoria’s 65-year-long reign”; the 1793/94 date is more than 40 years before she took the throne, and 25 years before she was even born.

The whole gorge, including the stairs, was carved out of the limestone–by slaves, using hand tools and axes, over a period of 16 years–for a far more practical reason: the British conquerors needed a faster escape route from Fort Fincastle, in the event that it were attacked (which it sometimes was).

The stairs were later named for Victoria because one of her first acts as Queen was to abolish slavery in the British Empire.

(What I haven’t found out yet is whether the stairs got the name when the act was signed/came into effect–1837/38–or only upon Victoria’s death in 1901, after the duration of her reign happened to (roughly) coincide with the number of stairs… Anecdotally, I think I remember the courtesy guide on site saying the extra step was for “Long live the Queen,” or something… Also: a renovation in the early 2000s reduced the number of stairs. There were 66 at the outset, and they were long called “The 65 Steps,” but now there are 64.)

Fair, it was renamed in honor of Queen Victoria, the local I got the story from obviously mangled some of the finer points, however it doesn’t appear to have been built as an escape route either. That’s apparently another misconception that gets spread by the guides. The real reason appears to have been the addition of a sub-division and subsequent decisions to cut access roads through hills along the same ridge. While construction was begun under slave labour, the project was still underway when the Abolition Act passed earlier by William IV came into effect at the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign (so 1837/38 to answer your question). So rather than continue cutting a road through the hill, they were forced to turn the project into a stairwell which they named in her honor.

Guess that goes to show that Professor John – who we had the privilege to tour Volubilis with – was right. Local guides often only have half the facts right, and are usually sharing these stories among themselves, contributing to a lot of misinformation being spread.

Huh. I too fell victim to an orally spread misconception! It seems like a hard story to tell concisely: oral history is inherently flawed, and written history is one-sided… there will be gaps in most any narrative. Do you happen to know any historical sources you’d recommend?

Unfortunately that’s very common in countries where there is limited academic/government involvement with their local historical tourist sites, and with the Queen’s Staircase in particular there doesn’t appear to be much online. Best bet is to go with some of the histories written about Queen Victoria herself, or the island. That seems to be where a few of the references I’ve managed to hunt down appear that others are pointing to Islander’s in the Stream (Vol. 2) by Michael Craton, and Gail Saunders which looks like a good source covering this period in particular. Gail Saunders in particular has done a lot of research on the area. So some of her other books might also have some good background on the matter. Good luck looking into this, and do let me know how you make out and if you find out anything else that’s particular interesting about the site.